Athens CEO resigns amid lawsuits

NASCAR racing team Morgan-McClure Motorsports is one of two auto racing companies suing an Athens firm that markets a hangover relief pill for failing to live up to sponsorship agreements.

The suits allege breach of contract and fraud against Three Sixty Inc., which distributes over-the-counter hangover relief medicine 360 OTC. Other defendants in the suits are Three Sixty's subsidiary Rockford-Montgomery Labs Inc., Rockford-Montgomery company officers Michele Shearer and Mark De Mattei and Air, Sea and Ground Inc. an advertising agency run by De Mattei.

The lawsuits are just part of the trouble for the apparently beleaguered company.

Three Sixty announced in a news release Thursday that Shearer had resigned as president of the company, after serving as president and CEO of the company only since May. Shearer founded Rockford-Montgomery Labs, which created the 360 OTC brand.

Virginia-based Morgan-McClure's suit, filed in the U.S. Northern District Court of Georgia, claims that Rockford-Montgomery failed to make payments on a $10.1 million race team sponsorship agreed to in 2006 for the 2007 season. The suit further alleged that Rockford-Montgomery signed up for another sponsorship with the Bill Davis Racing team, a competitor of Morgan-McClure and that Rockford-Montgomery attempted to terminate the agreement with Morgan-McClure without valid cause.

De Mattei, as an agent for Rockford-Montgomery, sent a letter of termination in November to Morgan-McClure saying the racing company failed to hire a race car driver in time for Rockford-Montgomery to come up with a marketing plan.

Dirt Motorsports, a Delaware company that sponsors the World of Outlaws racing tour, filed suit in August in the U.S. Middle District Court of Georgia against Shearer, De Mattei, Three Sixty, Rockford-Montgomery and Air, Sea and Ground Inc.

Dirt Motorsports' lawsuit charges breach of contract and fraud, and claims Three Sixty and the others failed to pay for $4.8 million in sponsorship agreements. Among several charges of fraud, the suit said De Mattei and Shearer knowingly made false claims that Air, Sea and Ground was managing a $65 million advertising campaign for Rockford-Montgomery.

In a related matter involving the Morgan-McClure suit, Athens attorney Roy E. Manoll III with Fortson, Bentley and Griffin, who had been hired as counsel for Rockford-Montgomery, withdrew from the case in September. Manoll wrote to Shearer that Rockford-Montgomery had not paid past legal fees, and he could not continue to work on the case with Rockford-Montgomery owing "significant" past due bills.

Motorsports marketing agency Just Marketing International, an Indiana-based firm, also filed suit in Clarke County Superior Court this summer against Rockford-Montgomery, Three Sixty, Shearer and De Mattei for nonpayment on a marketing program that Just Marketing worked on for Rockford-Montgomery.

Repeated attempts were made to reach Shearer and De Mattei, who did not return phone messages or e-mail inquiries.